LSE announces large DRH Grant
“This is a true humanities-science collaboration. The tool is a useful resource for humanities scholars - a qualitative and quantitative database of history. But for social scientists, it’s now one of (if not the) largest quantitative databases of history.”
London School of Economics press release, “The Database of Religious History receives grant from John Templeton Foundation”
The University of British Columbia: DRH Awarded Largest Humanities Grant
“UBC’s Database of Religious History (DRH) project has received the largest grant to date for a single research project in the humanities at UBC—$4.8 million from the John Templeton Foundation.
Led by Dr. Edward Slingerland and Dr. M. Willis Monroe, the project aims to democratize knowledge about religious history, enabling scholars of religion from around the world to share their expertise with a global audience by contributing to the free, searchable database. Each contribution in turn makes the database more useful—and reliable—for everyone.”
“Database of Religious History awarded largest grant for a UBC humanities research project,” The University of British Columbia, April 13, 2021.
University of British Columbia: Religion is one of the least studied and most misunderstood aspects of human life
“Throughout the world, religion is one of the most central commonalities that humans share. Whether we choose to follow a religion or not, every culture has one if not many religions woven through everyday life. Considering the importance of religion in human social life, we should all have a very clear understanding of why it exists, but we don’t.
“Religion is one of the least studied and most misunderstood aspects of human life, despite its central role in society,” says UBC Faculty of Arts Professor Edward Slingerland.”
“Annual Report: Digging into Religion,” UBC Annual Report 2012-2013, July 1st 2013.
Vancouver Sun: the world’s largest study on the evolution of religion and morality
“Why is a self-described “complete atheist” in charge of a $3-million research project into religion?
To find out how Edward Slingerland, a professor of Asian Studies at the University of B.C., came to be the primary investigator for the world’s largest study on the evolution of religion and morality, we need to go back a couple of decades.”
Douglas Todd, “Smart atheist heads $3-million grant into religion and morality,” Vancouver Sun, January 11th 2013.
The National Post: religion and civilization
““There is a view that religion is an ancient superstition that’s going to fall away,” said Edward Slingerland, a professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia and the lead of a massive Canadian project billed as world’s largest academic study of religion.
“If our theory is right it’s actually been the cornerstone to civilizations.””
“Research team looking to prove controversial theory that religion was the ‘cornerstone to civilizations’,” The National Post, December 21st 2012.